Presentation at FH St. Pölten: stappone as a successful example for “Digital Health“

The field of Digital Health offers great potentials and opportunities. The University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten organized the so-called “Zukunftsheurigen”, together with the House of Digitalization and in cooperation with Eudres, the European Hochschulaliance and the AWS. The topic: “Digital Health: Present and Future”. As a successful company in the field of Digital Health, stappone founder and CEO Peter Krimmer presented his company as well as past and future projects in cooperation with the FH St. Pölten.

The University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten is known as a prolific research university and works with national and international partners on application-oriented projects. In the field of health sciences, the focus is on providing patients with faster, more efficient, and more targeted care. This is also the primary product goal at stappone. With this synergy, we are very happy about our productive cooperation with the FH St. Pölten.

What is stappone?

stappone is an intelligent sensor insole that measures the foot pressure load, records movement sequences and displays them via Bluetooth on a terminal device (laptop, tablet, or app).

Stappone’s focus lies primarily in orthopaedic and neurological rehabilitation. Thanks to the objectified progress control through gait analysis and live biofeedback training, rehabilitation time can be reduced, in certain pathologies, by up to 25%.

A typical problem during the patient journey

After surgery on the lower extremities partial weight-bearing is prescribed. The patient is supposed to put only 25 kg of weight on the affected leg. But what does it mean and how can they control that? Normally, a physiotherapist would have the patient put their affected foot on an analogue scale until the pressure load reaches 25 kg. The patient must remember how this weight feels which, realistically, is impossible. Since patients have no possibility to check their pressure load in everyday life or during exercises the pressure load on the leg is mostly either too low or too high. Over- and underload slows down or endangers the healing process.

Scientific collaboration with the UAS St. Pölten

The collaboration with UAS St. Pölten started in 2018, when FH Prof. Dr. Michael Iber was looking for partners for his project “Sonigait – Mind the Steps”. Iber’s scientific field of expertise is acoustic information design. Through his internet research he became aware of stappone and reached out.

The basic idea of the project was presented as follows:

Drivers with manual transmissions determine the time of shifting exclusively by acoustics and not by looking at the cockpit. Isn’t it also conceivable that if our gait has a sound and we make a “wrong step”, we can correct it automatically with the help of an auditory feedback?

This is exactly where our intelligent stappone sensor sole comes in, our product was the optimal support for this research project.

The study’s results

The measurement of ground reaction forces with the stappone sensor sole with 12 sensors differs by only 3.8% from that of a force measurement mat with over 500 sensors. There is also great potential to integrate acoustic feedback into physiotherapy for preventive and supportive applications, such as supervised therapy settings and telerehabilitation.

The professional cooperation with the FH St. Pölten enabled further currently running projects:

• Gait parameter study for our further product development
• Dissertation on hip-TEP in consequence of arthrosis – support of arthrosis treatment with stappone products post- and preoperatively
• Live biofeedback exercises in physiotherapy – e.g. patients get an acoustic signal when the weight distribution during the exercise is incorrect.
• Arthrosis prevention in schools

We will keep you updated about the projects – stay tuned!

Watch the whole presentation on YouTube now! starting from Min 40:58

The stappone solution

The product STAPPONE Rehab provides patients with feedback on foot pressure load in real time using the soles and an app for IOS and Android. This brings patients to full weight-bearing as quickly as possible and counteracts asymmetries.

This is also very valuable for people with prostheses or osteoarthritis patients. Such patients have a strong tendency to put more pressure load on one side, which weakens the muscles and leads to further damage to the cartilage. By using the app, the patient can see their pressure load distribution, so he/she can work on strengthening the affected muscles again.

STAPPONE Medical is mainly designed for the clinical sector. The aim is to bring gait analysis out of the laboratory, so that the natural gait pattern can be assessed and examined. Progress monitoring and visualization for patients are also important topics of stappone.

STAPPONE Physio is similar to STAPPONE Medical but produced precisely for physical therapy with live biofeedback.

Motivated patients

One of stappone’s concerns is also to give patients an insight into their physical situation. Doctors and physiotherapists are professionals in their field, whereas patients are not. stappone wants to give doctors and physiotherapists a tool for a better communication and understanding on the patient’s side, because the better the understanding, the higher the patient’s motivation.

 

Do you have questions about the use of our stappone products? Contact us! We are always at your disposal.

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